Meetings: First Monday in February, April (Installation), June and October

Number of members @ 30th June 2009 - 56

The Register at Supreme Grand Chapter indicates that the Mechanical Chapter No 457 was formed in 1817 and its warrant was issued on the 4th April 1819. Prior to that date the Mechanical Lodge (now Duke of Normandy) had worked the Royal Arch degree within the Craft Lodge. Unfortunately the records of the original Chapter are lost, and we are left with just a few entries in the Craft Lodge minute books.

Only nine companions were exalted in 1819 and 1820 and there was a gap of twenty-two years before a further five exaltations took place. There was then a further gap of four years, before the Chapter started to receive a regular flow of work. There is evidence that the Chapter was working to the primitive Irish Rite, with only one Principal - the High Priest, and using the ceremony of passing the veils.

The support for the Chapter was not sufficient for it to maintain a separate existence, and in April 1860 it merged with the Royal Sussex Chapter No 722.

By 1925 the Royal Sussex Chapter had over 125 members, so there was a need to form an additional Chapter. It was decided to resurrect this Chapter and fourteen members of the Duke of Normandy Lodge signed the petition. The founders were nearly all drawn from the Royal Sussex Chapter. The Chapter was consecrated on March 11th, 1926 by ME Comp E.C.Malet de Carteret.